This is the true spirit of Christmas! Stuffed to the gills with piles of the richest helpings this sport can offer and yet with more to come tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. We will all pay for it in January and February, mind.

But just for this week, let’s make like British racing’s Industry Strategy and Irish governmental gambling policy and banish thoughts of a narrowing and distorted horse population and what that means for the future. Let’s instead luxuriate in contemplation of what we’ve learned over the past few days – and what that means for the remaining season ahead.

 This column focusses on the established chasers over the full range of distances and will be followed by another to address what the hurdlers and mares have been up to. Any New Year leftovers – plus thoughts on the novice chasers, novice and juvenile hurdlers from the Christmas period – will be hoovered up when this column returns to its usual schedule on Wednesday 3 January.

Don’t forget to check out Racing TV’s YouTube channel (or watch on the link right below) when a special Christmas edition mash-up of Road To Cheltenham and Let’s Talk Racing will go online. Ruby Walsh, Joshua Stacey, Andrew Blair White and I sledge our way through the most notable performances of the past few days – and respond to your questions.

Road To Cheltenham itself returns at its usual time – 9pm on Thursdays on Racing TV – on January 4.

Housekeeping completed. Are you sitting comfortably? Then, I’ll begin.

So much for the universally debilitating impact of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Galopin Des Champs punctured both that theory and the ambitions of the upstart Gerri Colombe with a devastating victory in Thursday’s Savills Chase.

Now it seems his only credible rivals surely stayed in their box over Christmas – Fastorslow, twice his recent conqueror, who ducked Leopardstown’s rain-sodden ground and (at a stretch) 2022 Brown Advisory hero L’Homme Pressé, if he retains his ability post-injury.

But it’s hard to make a Gold Cup case for the Leopardstown vanquished, or for those involved in a thrilling but flimsy King George.

Both Paul Townend and Galopin Des Champs set out with intent. “I loved the way he took on the first and from there on, I was very happy with him,” the winning rider later said. “He was happy; I was happy and it was pretty simple, actually, to be honest.”

That’s also how it looked. Titleholder Conflated – whom trainer Gordon Elliott had flirted with running in Cheltenham’s cross-country event earlier in the month – made the running under Sam Ewing on the inside whilst most of the field raced much wider. In rear, I Am Maximus and Churchstone Warrior raced closer to his line than the rest, the former taken there by his habitually errant jumping.

Galopin Des Champs joined the leader with that attacking leap at the first and remained prominent but apart. He put down at the third and fourth fences and adjusted right at one or two, but that’s to be picky. This was a round of jumping to erase from the memory his hesitant showing in the John Durkan on seasonal debut. A fluent leap at the second last propelled him to the front, meaning Townend could angle even wider for the better ground in the straight and pick his spot at the last.

The third-last fence was a tableau of a key difference between the winner and runner-up, as previously highlighted when I discussed Gerri Colombe in the first column of this series. “Whilst his jumping is safer than that of the champion (whose own technique improved last season), it is comparatively more deliberate,” I wrote then.

Here, Galopin Des Champs entered three out in second, but galloped away in a share of the lead. Whilst Gerri Colombe entered the same fence in third, his characteristic tardiness in regaining his stride enabled I Am Maximus (of all horses) to undertake him just after landing. It had been a similar story between the two chief protagonists at the eleventh fence, too.

That surely wasn’t the only difference, however, given there was a yawning 23 lengths between them at the line and Capodanno – who’d also traced a wide line and jumped much better than usual but had nonetheless made a serious error two out – almost caught Gerri Colombe for second.

Jack Kennedy’s mount did also race more towards the inside-centre of the track, where the ground was perhaps more chewed up. To add weight to this argument, the other wide runner Appreciate It was also in contention until his stamina ran out entering the straight, exacerbated by a two-out error, and Conflated was utterly legless in third after sticking resolutely to the inner but unable to get high enough at the last through tiredness, unseating Ewing.

Admittedly, there had been a touch of indecision in Gerri’s campaigning, too – not that this is likely to have had a tangible impact. First, it was to be January’s Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham for his second start, and then it was the King George. After watching Tuesday’s race, Elliott may already have regretted turning against that idea, albeit the fact remains Kempton’s ground was probably unsuitably sound and its track more exacting in demanding relentlessly swift jumping.

It’s also worth noting that Kennedy had kicked his feet free of his irons in the preliminaries, suggesting his mount was not in his calmest frame of mind, for whatever reason. Whatever might have been bugging Gerri, he came up well short on his second big-boy assignment. Whilst it’s hard to fashion an argument for a 23-length swing in the form, his body of work suggests he’s surely capable of better than this.

Back in a distant sixth was the horse who once wore the crown. Having been reportedly agitated in the preliminaries, A Plus Tard was making his seasonal return on ground known to be softer than he prefers and the effort of jumping out of it caused him to adjust ever more markedly right in the race. That’s always been his method, but here it was debilitating.

That’s his fourth lacklustre effort since winning the 2022 Gold Cup. As stated in last season’s series, I would include in that the 2023 edition in which (for my money) he already looked beaten when taken out of the race in the backwash of Ahoy Senor’s fall six out. Henry de Bromhead wasn’t resounding with confidence ahead of this race and A Plus Tard ran accordingly.

Martin Brassil explained in some detail to Nick Luck on the Thursday morning edition of his eponymous podcast why he’d opted to withdraw Fastorslow from that afternoon’s Savills Chase. You can hear for yourself below.

“We were really looking forward to the race – it’s been getting loads of hype and we were very happy with the horse. So, it’s just a shame that from Tuesday night into yesterday evening there was 35mm of rain fell in Leopardstown,” Brassil said.

“As you could see in the Paddy Power Chase, it turned into a fair old slog and less than half the field finished. The Gold Cup is the Gold Cup and Cheltenham is the main target. Luckily, we have the option of the Grade One in the Dublin Racing Festival, so rather than get a grueller there today I’m going to wait and go there.”

Brassil also pointed out that Leopardstown had elected to schedule that 29-runner handicap chase (albeit two were non-runners) for the previous day, meaning “there is no fresh ground for the feature race of the week there today”. “I couldn’t call that ideal for potential Gold Cup horses,” he concluded, with powerful understatement.

His observation certainly played out in how the Savills Chase was run and the various jockeys’ tactical choices might even have amplified the winner’s margin of victory. His words also set up a pre-Cheltenham clash with Galopin Des Champs in February – something Willie Mullins said he would “not particularly” relish. Yet, pleasingly, it has “every chance” of happening.

The most arresting moment in Mullins’ interview with Racing TV’s Gary O’Brien (below) came when he admitted coming to Leopardstown that morning, thinking “if any one of [our] four had won, it wouldn’t have surprised me”. For the record, that quartet again was Galopin Des Champs and… er… checks notes… Capodanno, Appreciate It and I Am Maximus.

He amplified this comment by adding: “I just didn’t want to miss this race. I didn’t know how our fellow was going to run; he hadn’t been working like that [how he won] at home but I felt that if we skipped this and then only had the DRF race, the Irish Gold Cup, left and he got a stone bruise or something the week before, then we’d have no run [prior to Cheltenham]. So, I said roll the dice here, see what happens. I’m delighted we did.”

It's said the most successful sportspeople stay and play in the present, so perhaps this explains Mullins’ attitude because in no other way does it make sense. A peak Galopin Des Champs is the best part of two stones better than his three stable companions yet due to what he did last time out and how he’s been working at home, his trainer viewed them as much-of-a-muchness. Extrapolating, I even think this might explain a lot about Mullins’ decision-making over the years. That’s my hypothesis, anyway, and I’m going to ponder it.

What might have happened two days earlier in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase is more self-evidently up for active debate. Had Shishkin not inexplicably stumbled and unseated his rider after jumping the second last cleanly and in the lead, badly hampering Bravemansgame and thus handing the lead to Allaho, only for both those remaining to be mown down after the last by the comparatively strong-finishing Hewick, would there have been a markedly different result?

My own view is that Shishkin would have won but for the drama, with Bravemansgame probably but not necessarily repelling Hewick for a narrow second.

But that scenario hinges on how much Shishkin would have had left given his jockey Nico de Boinville had upped the hitherto deeply untaxing pace for a couple of fences when taking over the lead from the 11th and when pressing on again a long way out, towards the home turn, whilst the ultimate winner was still toiling several lengths adrift in last place.

I don’t buy it that Shishkin took his clumsy mis-step through exhaustion, however, as he’d just given the obstacle plenty of air. That’s not to say he wouldn’t have been tired a fence later because the whole field was slowing down markedly at that point, but I think he would have done enough to win even though Hewick was slowing down less quickly.

Shishkin was about two lengths in front of Bravemansgame when he jumped the penultimate fence cleanly but contrived to knuckle on his second landing stride, unseating an unsuspecting de Boinville. (One way or another, he’s going to get you, Nico.)

Bravemansgame was badly checked when abruptly running into the back of Shishkin. Hewick was still at least three lengths adrift at that point but rallying inexorably. You’ve also got to factor in that Allaho, on whom Townend was holding onto little, would ideally have been played later than when compelled to seize the day as a result of the melée. 

Shishkin is certainly a stronger stayer and perhaps less of a has-been than Allaho. (Doesn’t life just keep coming at you?) He may also be a stronger stayer than Bravemansgame, who isn’t currently at his best for whatever reason – having been taken deep into the red zone by Galopin Des Champs in March and a muddled early-season campaign being two potential contributors. Yet Shishkin surely isn’t as strong a stayer as Hewick, albeit stamina of that ilk wouldn’t normally be the pivotal factor in a King George.

“If it wasn’t a King George, I’d probably look at pulling him up. I wasn’t going, I wasn’t happy,” confessed winning rider Gavin Sheehan in his post-race interview with Tom Stanley.

My blunt reading of this King George is that a Has-Been, a Can’t-Do-Right-Now and a Won’t got racing a bit too far out after dawdling early on which, complicated by a pivotal dash of ill fortune, handed the race to the horse who just kept going. I don’t believe this form holds any relevance for Cheltenham, luckless Shishkin perhaps aside – and I’ll happily oppose the Macavity of jump racing for different reasons in future. (He definitely cheats at cards.)

To declare Shishkin showed no signs of reluctance would be a most indulgent interpretation of what went on. Yes, Henderson’s assistant George Daly, dispatched to the start as Arm-Waver-In-Chief, didn’t have to get involved but that was only because luck – at that stage – was rolling de Boinville’s way. Had Shishkin decided not to start, there would have been nothing any of those present could have done about it.

Having dodged the parade along with Bravemansgame (on which more at the foot of this section), Shishkin was kept moving at the start via urgings of de Boinville’s feet whenever standstill threatened. His rider also positioned him on the right-hand outer of the field, thus warding off any tricksy dropping of his left shoulder, which had enabled him to duck away leftwards at Ascot.

It was de Boinville’s good fortune that the start proceeded smoothly, in one continuous movement from the field being called onto the track proper. His opponents were also sporting enough not to block his path, cause a hitch in proceedings or even trigger a false start. (Cue my Road To Cheltenham co-presenter implying they were insufficiently ruthless...) Even so, Shishkin needed rousting along after flag-fall as his opponents straightforwardly galloped towards the first.

Timeform’s Tom Heslop, at the behest of his colleague David Johnson, crunched the data pre-King George and found that merely 17.4% of horses who had refused to race on the Flat or over Jumps since 2010 had performed the same trick next time out. I asked them how many went on to refuse for a second time at some point in their careers and when they tell me, I’ll tell you!

Whatever that percentage, I suspect Shishkin will boost it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Even in the heat of the King George, de Boinville had to remind him a race was ongoing. His mount’s cheekpieces had been removed for Kempton following their abortive Ascot debut, requiring chivvying to replace what sheepskin could otherwise provide.

Even so, Shishkin should probably have won. So much talent, such dwindling inclination.

If I sound dismissive, you misunderstand. I’m one of those infuriating people who love horses like this. The key is never, ever to risk any money on them, of course, but I admire their disdain for the human construct of horseracing. They are the Charlie Daltons of the sport, exercising the right not to race. That’s Shishkin right there, leaning against a pillar, pitying his peers. 

I suspect we have already seen the summit of Bravemansgame – when he strung together three top-drawer performances in a row last term – and are unlikely to see that matched, or even neared, this season. He remains a whole heap of coal short of firing currently.

Perhaps Paul Nicholls might skip Cheltenham and do a Clan Des Obeaux by prioritising Aintree and Punchestown? But why would he do that with a horse who’s just finished an unlucky second in a King George and was the only rival able to put up a fight against this week’s utterly dominant Savills Chase winner when they met in March?

Bravemansgame’s Kempton effort was clearly going to be better than Haydock or even Wetherby because the check he received from sprawling Shishkin was significant enough to throw Harry Cobden forward out of the saddle and exchange a half-length lead on Allaho for a length deficit by the time the partnership had regathered.

Given he’d also got drawn into chasing Shishkin a long way out, it reflects well on the BMG that he rallied to snatch second, but upping a slow pace caused them to need a collective sit-down. It probably also says most about Allaho, who’s dealt with more fully in the Intermediate Chasers section below.

And what of the fairytale winner? Hewick routinely defies wise expectations and has rightfully won the affection of racing fans on both sides of the Irish Sea, as testified by the reception he received at Kempton and the excitement generated by Shark Hanlon’s announcement that his King George winner will parade at Gowran Park on Thyestes day next month. Count me in!

Although the ground came in his favour, Hewick’s jumping lacked fluency from the very first fence and he’d lost a relatively prominent position within three further obstacles, unable to live with Frodon’s unexceptional pace but largely metronomic jumping on the first circuit. He appeared to be hopelessly labouring at the start of the final circuit but Sheehan kept him hanging in there, as instructed by Hanlon.

As the front three pressed on approaching the home turn, he was rallying – passing Frodon on the bend and The Real Whacker shortly after landing the third last. Then the carnage ahead turned faint hopes of a place into something more remarkable and Hewick’s jumping became an asset, carrying him away from the last with alacrity as his less stamina-fuelled rivals gave it more slow-motion air. No wonder Sheehan stood upright in his irons with exhilaration, crossing the line.

“He’s never been a fluent jumper but going down the back, I just knew that his stamina was starting to come,” the slightly stunned winning rider said on his return to the weighing room. “I just gave him two reminders going round the bend and I didn’t put [my stick] down, just kept waving it, and I found a new lease of life coming up the straight and I just started picking them off...  As soon as I landed over the last, I knew I was going to win.”

After attempting to spray the assembled media with champagne, Formula One-style, and cutting down those pundits - real and imagined - who’d overlooked his horse’s credentials, a beaming Hanlon said: “It’s great to come over here and win a King George.

“When you’re a young lad, you think maybe some day you might have a runner on the day or you might have a runner in it, but you never think you’re going to win it. We’re a small stable and we’ve got one good horse and this is him. We’ve got a lot of nice horses but we’ve none like this… He’s a little star. Willie’s horse [Allaho] is about 18 hands and my little lad around 16 hands but he has a big heart. That’s most important.”

This victory has essentially bounced Hewick back into the Gold Cup even though his trainer plainly believes his Aintree assignment the most suitable target. “Probably the English National is the right race for him, but he has to go for a Gold Cup after today,” Hanlon said.

Of course, Hewick out-ran expectations – certainly mine – in last season’s edition when hanging in there two out with a small chance of third, only to take an alarmingly awkward-looking fall when mildly tight for room on the inside rail. He then instantly bounced back six weeks later to win Sandown’s Grade Two Oaksey Chase.

Yet at the risk of angering St Jude and the Hanlons again, although Hewick is in far better shape than the rest of last season’s Gold Cup field – bar Royale Pagaille, who finished only sixth and has had a setback since his Betfair Chase success – I can’t see him laying a glove on the returning titleholder.

King George fourth The Real Whacker was unable to get involved in any meaningful way at any stage. It’s likely that he’s not up to this class but also worth noting that two factors have gone against him.

First, trainer Pat Neville has only had two winners this season, the first just nine days beforehand at Carlisle and the second later on Kempton’s Boxing Day card when Mahon’s Glory won the closing handicap hurdle. Second, he struck into himself when finishing lame and pulled up in the Paddy Power Gold Cup on seasonal debut. It’s conceivable he can do better than this when his sights are lowered, perhaps for the Ultima given his proven aptitude for Cheltenham.

That Bryony Frost was able to lead this field until the 12th fence – the first in the back straight on the final circuit – on 2020 victor Frodonsaid as much about the verve of his opposition as it did the willingness of her mount. He jumped boldly and accurately but was brushed aside even by this standard of renewal.

Based on this and his highly respectable third in the Badger Beers Chase on seasonal debut, Frodon would still have remained capable of winning a decent handicap, especially on the veterans’ circuit, for a trainer who knows no equal in pinpointing winnable targets for exposed chasers with residual talent.

But owner Paul Vogt has wisely opted to retire him. This horse is too precious and meaningful to those closest to him and to fans of the sport to be bothered with pothunting suitable targets. Instead, Frodon gets to retire at Frost’s home, where she already looks after Black Corton – her first Grade One-winning mount – in his retirement. What a fitting next phase in his life. Bravo.

After Nassalam ran away with the Coral Welsh National by 34 lengths from a mark of 145 the following day, trainer Gary Moore is entitled to contemplate a Gold Cup entry. There will have been sillier ideas. As Racing TV pundit Steve Jones tweeted, it takes a horse of top-drawer ability to win that race by such a margin.

Moore himself is of the view that Nassalam is an exceptional horse on heavy ground, such as he encountered at Chepstow. Entering on spec, in the hope of hitting the right surface, can get expensive but this horse has shown enough to bag a graded race in the right scenario. Aintree’s Grand National remains the next target, however.

My final thought in this section belongs to what an embarrassing and inexplicable look it was for the sport that only four horses in a mere King George field of six paraded in front of the paying public on Tuesday.

The second and third favourites, Bravemansgame and Shishkin, were permitted to opt out of the preliminaries to Britain’s big Boxing Day feature because their connections had applied for prior permission from the raceday stewards. This privilege is allowed if connections believe taking part in the parade could cause a potential issue that might compromise the welfare of the horse, jockey or handler – and it’s my perception that it’s become a more common decision post-Covid.

Exemption on those terms should set a very high bar indeed, so the word “welfare” must surely have been increasingly brandished with the intent of gaining a competitive advantage – or at least not impacting negatively upon you horse’s competitive chance, which amounts to the same thing when your opponents don’t take the same approach. I don’t doubt this has placed some raceday stewards in a very difficult position if they ever sought to push back against such requests.

As I’ve argued many times before in different contexts, this sport needs to be very precise when deploying the W-word because there are already enough people who seek closely to examine its actions and words via that exacting lens. A horse being led in front of a grandstand is not an ordeal. Conversely, for the sake of its own future, does the sport (on the Flat) want to breed from horses that might find this task beyond them?

Perhaps reinforcing the importance of parades – to the paying public, the future breed and the fundamental principle of an equal sporting chance – could be part of the brave new world of Premierisation, starting on Monday? Innovatively, they might even consider getting races off on time in 2024, too. Thank goodness for the shiny new Industry Strategy, without which such ground-breaking thoughts might never have been thunk.

I’d want at least three times the available odds of 7/2 that Allaho will regain his Ryanair crown. The horse of old, who twice pulverised his Cheltenham opponents from the front in 2021 and 2022 and who beat a host of talented stayers over three miles in Punchestown’s Gold Cup 20 months ago, would have dismantled this year’s King George with a bold show of galloping and jumping. 

He wouldn’t have consented to be tamely headed at a crawl by Frodon and Shishkin. Il Est Français’s Kauto Star fractions blew the older horses out of the water and yet Allaho didn’t seek to go faster? He dropped to two miles in his pomp! Sadly, this says to me he is not the horse he once was – that is, one of the very best of recent years. 

There was more than a whiff of this at Clonmel – when I concluded “I’d need to see more next time” – but you could argue then he was rusty after 561 days off the track as a result of a major spleen issue. Now I’ve seen him in action at Kempton, it’s harder to be positive – at least for this term. 

There is the hope of a Sprinter Sacre-type comeback, perhaps. It took that utterly exceptional two-miler a whole season to recapture his verve following a year off with a fibrillating heart problem. Even then, he never quite regained the dizzying heights of his 2013 Champion Chase success, but built back steadily to compile a perfect season in 2015/16, regaining that title at the age of ten and signing off with an utterly dominant success at Sandown. 

I would love that to come together for Allaho – who’s rising 10 right now and never reached Sprinter’s rarefied level, even at his best – but I won’t be taking the available odds about it. 

Ryanair titleholder Envoi Allen – Ruby’s ante-post selection at 16/1 – was withdrawn from the Savills Chase on account of the testing ground, with Henry de Bromhead preferring to recalibrate for the Kinloch Brae at Thurles on 21 January. The trick of the Ryanair is to get a definite runner and he appears just that, accidents notwithstanding. 

Although the form of his defeat by Gerri Colombe at Down Royal took a knock within the context of the Savills Chase, it remains a substantial effort in the context of his profile and shouldn’t be knocked just yet. He’s also well suited to Cheltenham. 

Janidil was also withdrawnon Thursday, but in his case the Mullins team reported him to be running a temperature. He’d last been seen failing to put up a fight against Allaho at Clonmel and 66/1 for the Ryanair about this underachieving 2022 runner-up would seem to underline how time has moved on. 

Whilst this division’s leading lights El Fabiolo and Jonbon hogged the selection box and binge-watched Die Hard, Christmas was a golden opportunity for one of their vanquished to bag a significant trophy or for a new player to enter the fray. It turned out we got one of each. 

Stepping up to open Grade One company for the Paddy Rewards Club Chase and despite drifting in the betting near the off, Dinoblue got her well-earned desserts for resolute improvement ever since her jumping let her down in the latter stages of the Grand Annual in March.

Since then, accuracy has been her hallmark. She maybe lacked a little fluency at the third here at Leopardstown and was untidy having taken over control from front-running stablemate Gentleman De Mee at the last, but was otherwise reliably sound for partner Mark Walsh. It initiated a 1-2-3 for Willie Mullins, with Saint Roi trailing in a distant third. Dysart Dynamo would have made it four but for taking an exhausted tumble at the last. 

As the runner-up is a dual Grade One winner, including over the course and distance in the Dublin Chase in February, and has clearly returned in better heart than he was for his debut last season – albeit he jumped increasingly right from the fifth obstacle – this was a fair enough test that the mare managed to pass. 

“Gentleman De Mee set a great pace and jumped fantastic,” their trainer observed. “I wondered at one stage would she be able to stay jumping with him but she held her jumping together and, when he took a blow, she just stayed galloping. She is improving all the time.” 

The winner still surely has the Mrs Paddy Power Liberthine Chase as her Festival target, which will require her to carry a 5lb penalty for this success and prove her stamina for an extra three-and-a-half furlongs – a trip she’s tried only once previously, on her third start over hurdles when patient tactics were overdone. But first she could be back here in February for the Dublin Chase. 

Despite the pair also sharing an owner in JP McManus, as the titleholder Gentleman De Mee is likely to have the same target and he remains a substantial enough opponent when things click on a sound surface. Saint Roi represents the same crew but made a string of errors and continues to play the role of Andy Dufresne. 

Dysart Dynamo, who stubbornly fought Danny Mullins’ attempts to impose patient tactics, was in the process of regressing from his seasonal debut when bringing his tally of career falls to three. A heedlessly headstrong character, with a bold jump and one-dimensional run style, he looks unlikely to build on his creditable novice campaign at this stage. He’s a worry for his trainer. 

Captain Guinness was the stone-cold disappointment, however, seemingly squandering an open goal for his first Grade One win. Settled in mid-division, he made a mistake at the sixth and Rachael Blackmore was already needing to ask him to keep up by the next. At the eighth, he was already beaten. The veterinary officer later reported him to be clinically abnormal. 

Hopefully, this isn’t a recurrence of the heart problem that caused him to be pulled up in a Tipperary beginners chase back in October 2020 – albeit he’s had an active and successful career since that issue was addressed. We await an update from Henry de Bromhead on his likeable charge, who had strung together a consistent series of improved efforts this year. 

Staged as a limited handicap rather than a weight-for-age Grade Two for the first time, the Desert Orchid attracted a field of six, many of whom might well have turned up anyway. Yet crucially the betting suggested it was a more competitive contest than those one-sided affairs of recent years. 

It was won by Editeur Du Gite, who went hard and toe-to-toe with Elixir De Nutz, to whom he would have conceded 3lb but for rider Niall Houlihan’s claim of the same weight. It was a fitting way for that jockey to ride out his allowance, having previously guided this horse to an exquisitely judged success in last season’s Clarence House at Cheltenham. 

This pair of bold-jumping front-runners were locked together from the outset but Editeur Du Gite had won the upper hand by the straight and had all but seen off his close attendant when that horse crashed through the second last. That rendered Elixir De Nutz vulnerable to Nube Negra – receiving 1lb from them both – to pick up the pieces for a fortunate second in a slow-motion finish. 

The early pace may have been a shade hot for recent dual Ascot handicap winner Boothill, on whom Jonathan Burke hadn’t played his cards when plunging through the eighth fence. He’d been a tad airy at the second, then adjusted left at a couple and was briefly nudged along, but he’d warmed to his task and was poised in the right tactical place when coming down. 

Grange Walk was outclassed, detached from the outset, and the unfortunate Nico de Boinville had to pull up Malystic after his mount’s mistake at the first caused him to dislocate his thumb. 

From a mark 6lb lower than his seasonal debut fifth in the Haldon Gold Cup – won by Elixir De Nutz from a mark 10lb lower than he was allotted on Wednesday – this was easily the winner’s best effort since his famous Grade One defeat of Edwardstone and Energumene. 

Taking in the Clarence House again next month looks a little rich with El Fabiolo and Jonbon both said to be heading there at this stage, so perhaps the Game Spirit will be Editeur Du Gite’s next assignment. As a winner over that course and distance, Elixir De Nutz might well head there, too, given he’s proved he’s at home at this level. 

Editeur De Gite also played his part in a golden 45 minutes for popular trainer Gary Moore, who’d just won Chepstow’s Finale Juvenile Hurdle with Salver and would go on to claim the Welsh National with Nassalam less than 25 minutes later.

Advised 16/11/23: Envoi Allen at 16/1 for the Ryanair Chase with Paddy Power   

She’s got less rabbit than Sainsbury's